Cooled seats not cooling

[natepcbfl]

Still not working

Is there anybody around the N Alabama area that took theirs in and actually got them fixed? Mine is back in for the 3rd time, not sure if they are going to be able to fix it as the reply for the call I received about an hour ago said "we will have him do the TSB on it again" what I was expecting to hear was "we will fix it and make it work this time and not give your car back still not working after we tell you it is". I am just trying to find a dealership that can fix it and I will drive if necessary.

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[jasonstang]

Is there anybody around the N Alabama area that took theirs in and actually got them fixed? Mine is back in for the 3rd time, not sure if they are going to be able to fix it as the reply for the call I received about an hour ago said "we will have him do the TSB on it again" what I was expecting to hear was "we will fix it and make it work this time and not give your car back still not working after we tell you it is". I am just trying to find a dealership that can fix it and I will drive if necessary.

As we have discussed, the fix is only marginal.

 

[natepcbfl]

As we have discussed, the fix is only marginal.

That is not correct. I have been in contact with someone from Washington state that took theirs to Vancouver Ford and it works just like the day he got it. I had also contacted the tech that fixed it and he as well confirmed it worked like its supposed to as long as it is done correctly. Until it quit you would have to turn the seats down unless you wanted to grow icicles. So it is able to be fixed and work as its supposed to. I am just trying to find a dealer that can do it. I would take it to Vancouver Ford if they were just not on the other side of the country.:headbonk:

 

[ctlaw]

That is not correct. I have been in contact with someone from Washington state that took theirs to Vancouver Ford and it works just like the day he got it. I had also contacted the tech that fixed it and he as well confirmed it worked like its supposed to as long as it is done correctly. Until it quit you would have to turn the seats down unless you wanted to grow icicles. So it is able to be fixed and work as its supposed to. I am just trying to find a dealer that can do it. I would take it to Vancouver Ford if they were just not on the other side of the country.:headbonk:

But it did not work the day he got it.

The problem is it can trick you. If you get in the car and it's been soaking at at 60F or below, you can turn on the cooled seats and it will instantly give you a blast of cold air.

If it's been soaking at 100F+, you may get some moderate cooling of the seat bottom, but little or none of the back and may actually get runaway heating of the back.

 

[Rich of So Cal]

But it did not work the day he got it.

The problem is it can trick you. If you get in the car and it's been soaking at at 60F or below, you can turn on the cooled seats and it will instantly give you a blast of cold air.

If it's been soaking at 100F+, you may get some moderate cooling of the seat bottom, but little or none of the back and may actually get runaway heating of the back.

Yes, it works only when you don't need it. Almost worthless IMHO.
But the heat part works well.

 

[ibinubu12]

I'm a potential S550 buyer (eyeing a '16 Guard GT Premium and a few 17's if the guard is gone by the time I pull the trigger).

One of the biggest selling points to me is the cooled seats, I read this entire thread and am actually very disappointed to find this. I've emailed Ford with my concerns and asked if they are still working on a solution.

Anyone know if the 2017's have this rectified? I'm thinking not...

And about the BMW 2/3/4 BMW's not having cooled seats... The S550's rivals offer cooled seats in both Camaro and Challengers, I've spent a good amount of time researching the Camaro as well and haven't seen any threads on the Camaro forums about the seats not working, Just complaints that they're pretty weak... They have many many first run (optimistic) issues but the seats are not one of them. Didn't care to research the Challenger because a Hell cat is out of my range and imo is the only Challenger worth looking at.

You can also get cooled/ventilated seats in a Kia Soul...

My 2016 cooled seats cool the bottom and the lower portion of the back (I think Ford's forum account called it "lumbar portion") very well on moderately warm days, on days when the car has been roasting in the sun, the bottom cools before the back but the back does get cold.

 

[papinist]

My 2016 cooled seats cool the bottom and the lower portion of the back (I think Ford's forum account called it "lumbar portion") very well on moderately warm days, on days when the car has been roasting in the sun, the bottom cools before the back but the back does get cold.

The lower back cool is only a side effect of the seat bottom cooling system. The back cooling is in the upper part of the seat (and it didn't work..)

[MENTION=25453]natepcbfl[/MENTION]: it works like it is supposed to work FOR FORD, not for who need cooled seats.
And I agree, probably in Vancouver it works a bit, but don't think it will never work in Alabama, or in Italy, with these design flaws.

 

[ctlaw]

Yes, it works only when you don't need it. Almost worthless IMHO.
But the heat part works well.

Actually, not well.

The seat bottom heats much more than the seat back. After shoveling the car out in the winter, I really would prefer my back being warmed to my balls being fried.

 

[BamBam]

If you want to talk about "quality" issues, look at Takata and Honda. Two Japanese companies that covered up design defects and now have biggest recall in the history of consumer products. You call that "quality" and want to compare your dissatisfaction with a cooled seat to people dying? Let's put things in perspective here.

The cooled seats not working to your satisfaction is not a "quality" issue. It's a due to design challenges with cooled seats in genera;; it's difficult to get sufficient air into the seat back to allow the TED to work efficiently. Unfortunately, the side effect is that the seat backs don't cool as well as expected. My car is the same way; but you don't see me going crazy about it. I don't buy vehicles based solely on a meaningless feature like cooled seats, if it doesn't work as well as I hoped than all you can do is report the issue to the dealer. The dealer can then forward it to the manufacturer; if they get enough complains, that will warrant a service fix.

Ford and the Pinto gas tanks and the tires on the Explorers still hang in the memory of some people... But Toyota did similar with the unintended acceleration, GM with their ignition's shutting off and Jeep is following the Pinto with explosive rear tanks in older late 90s Grand Cherokee's.

I work in production for Tesla, I'm not a stranger to quality problems from the very beginning. Plenty of our cars have had issues... It's by far not a secret. I understand some things happen, But how the manufacturer deals with said problems speaks volumes of their commitment to their customers... On our cars, If something, anything goes wrong we fix it and if it is a big enough issue, changes are made immediately in production.

Just because someone else covers up their defects, lethal or not does not give everyone else an excuse to advertise a feature that does not work...

Other cars have managed to get the "cooled" seats to work, if you spent any time in an older mercedes with the cooled seats, they have vents on the back of the seats.

If I'm going to spend $40K for a car, I am expecting to get every feature listed and added to work flawlessly... It got 102 Degree's today as I ran around town, Thinking to myself... Cooled seats would of been fantastic in my Z. So I don't see it as a meaningless option, But a convenience that is required for my next car.

I'm waiting to hear back from Ford to see if they're still trying to develop a fix, if not then I see a lot of dealer visits if I get an S550.

Some databases do not distinguish between ventillated seats and cooled seats

Ventillated seats = fan w/o TED cooling

Camaro has ventillated seats. They seem weak because there are no underseat ducts to precool the air driven by the fans

If memory serves, the original Hyundai/Kia ventillated seats drew in air from underseat ducts so they seemed cooler.

Cooled seats generally = TED (but some people misidentify ventillated seats as cooled)

Fusion has cooled seats which draw in precooled air from the underseat ducts and further cool it; the precooled air also prevents the TED from overheating. Mustang uses the same seats without underseat ducts. oops!

Challenger has underseat ducts. Thus, either it is like the Kias or like the Fusion, but it won't be like the mustang.

I was going off what the window sticker calls it...

Here's a 16 I'm looking at

http://www.windowsticker.forddirect...thniWQLZ8p1xG2RfB6NyoadSnhYzYAynS/Sc2Y2/9vk8=

"cooled" so I would hope that it would do as it states and cools the seat in the way it was intended to do.

 

[papinist]

If you want to talk about "quality" issues, look at Takata and Honda. Two Japanese companies that covered up design defects and now have biggest recall in the history of consumer products. You call that "quality" and want to compare your dissatisfaction with a cooled seat to people dying? Let's put things in perspective here.

The cooled seats not working to your satisfaction is not a "quality" issue. It's a due to design challenges with cooled seats in genera;; it's difficult to get sufficient air into the seat back to allow the TED to work efficiently. Unfortunately, the side effect is that the seat backs don't cool as well as expected. My car is the same way; but you don't see me going crazy about it. I don't buy vehicles based solely on a meaningless feature like cooled seats, if it doesn't work as well as I hoped than all you can do is report the issue to the dealer. The dealer can then forward it to the manufacturer; if they get enough complains, that will warrant a service fix.

I can't agree with you.
Ford told me: "Hey we can provide you cooled seats for 600 eur, do you want it?" and I was like "Oh yeah cool feature! Shut up and take my money!!" and paid 600 eur for that feature.
Then I find out that this feature does not work as per everyone's judge - because if they should cool and instead I feel nothing or heating, they don't work.
I can understand that it's a challenge to make proper cooling system for these seats, but you (FORD) have to test it out before advertising and asking (and taking) money from people. When you test it and it doesn't work, DON'T SELL IT!

If they are a honest company, they should refund us half the price of this option since heating (probably) works, but cooling does not. And they can do all the fix, but if it's a design flaw, they had to redesign the whole system and it won't happen for our cars.

 

[millhouse]

As of right now, I consider the "cooled" seat option nothing more than an ass fumigator. It allows me to rapidly spread my man scent around the cabin without worrying about said scent bonding to the seats.

Until someone can claim success with the TSB fix, I won't bring it in...as I don't wan't to risk the dealer jacking things up.

 

[A7mad]

I did the TSB. See the pics for results.

The seats have 2 blower motors, one for the bottom and one for the backrest cooling. The TSB replaces the backrest blower motor with a redesigned one that contains a fabric air channel that solves the heat generation issue. If you are frustrated with the heat generated in the lower portion of the backrest and you can get the TSB done for free: DO IT.

Pic1 : Before
Pic2 : After

 

[lemers]

I did the TSB. See the pics for results.

The seats have 2 blower motors, one for the bottom and one for the backrest cooling. The TSB replaces the backrest blower motor with a redesigned one that contains a fabric air channel for the hot air to escape. If you are frustrated with the heat generation in the lower portion of the backrest and you can get the TSB done for free: DO IT.

Pic1 : Before
Pic2 : After

Has this TSB been put into new production cars? If so does anyone know when?

 

[jasonstang]

I did the TSB. See the pics for results.

The seats have 2 blower motors, one for the bottom and one for the backrest cooling. The TSB replaces the backrest blower motor with a redesigned one that contains a fabric air channel for the hot air to escape. If you are frustrated with the heat generation in the lower portion of the backrest and you can get the TSB done for free: DO IT.

Pic1 : Before
Pic2 : After

How much work was involved? Did they have to remove the seat out of the car?
I don't mind not cooling as good but heating up is a different story.

 

[GT Pony]

How much work was involved? Did they have to remove the seat out of the car?
I don't mind not cooling as good but heating up is a different story.

The TSB shows to remove the seats to do the fix.

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